Soren Kierkegaard's final Attack upon Christendom marks the common culmination of three of the most important themes evident in his earlier, pseudonymous books, namely the 'Leap', the 'Offence' and 'Indirect Communication.' Modern critical scholarship tends to take one of two approaches. Either Attack is dismissed as a deviation from Kierkegaard's previous writing, or Attack is read without sufficient regard for its dependence upon what has come before. Both approaches make an aberration out of the final work. This thesis proposes that reading Attack in light of its proper relation to the pseudonymous writings offers a more complete picture of the dialectical shape and development of Kierkegaard's thought. Employing Plato's analogy of the Cave in Republic as a hermeneutical tool, the thesis proposes an analogous 'ascent' in the pseudonyms out of the 'cave' of Christendom towards a vision of authentic Christianity. By the same analogy Kierkegaard completes the trajectory under his own name by a 'descent' from his vision back into the practical world of public engagement with his Attack. The thesis investigates the three key themes of Kierkegaard's oeuvre as they develop throughout the literature and are brought to fruition in Attack upon Christendom, and devotes a chapter each to the 'Leap', the 'Offence' and 'Indirect Communication'.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.79821 |
| Date | January 2003 |
| Creators | Backhouse, Stephen Grahame |
| Contributors | Kirby, Torrance (advisor) |
| Publisher | McGill University |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Coverage | Master of Arts (Faculty of Religious Studies.) |
| Rights | All items in eScholarship@McGill are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated. |
| Relation | alephsysno: 002148866, proquestno: AAIMQ98413, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest. |
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